Abstract: At 9:45 a.m. on December 12, 2003, Employee #1 was the job foreman and a permanent employee at a firm that installs and maintains communications conduit. He was installing communications conduit in a new area being prepared for future housing developments in the City of Hesperia, CA. A fire hydrant had fallen into a cut-and-cover excavation and damaged a conduit. To make the repairs, Employee #1 chained a trench box to the bucket of a John Deere model number 410G backhoe-loader, serial number BHO130, and used the bucket to lower the trench box into the excavation. Employee #1 then set the bucket, teeth facing downward, on the ground next to the trench box. Employee #1 shut the backhoe down and left it unattended. He did not, though, completely ground or block the bucket to prevent inadvertent movement. A ladder was placed in the excavation next to the backhoe bucket. Employee #1 and two coworkers repaired the conduit. The first coworker had already exited the trench box and was topside as Employee #1 was climbing up the ladder. Employee #1 placed his left hand on an upper rung and his right hand on the edge of the trench box. As Employee #1 turned his body and looked down toward the second coworker, the bucket fell on Employee #1's right hand, pinning it between the trench box and the bucket. The bucket did not fall down into the excavation. Employee #1 told the first coworker how to turn on the backhoe and lift the bucket. Once the bucket was lifted off Employee #1's hand, the second coworker helped get Employee #1 out of the excavation. Employee #1 sustained crushing injuries to his right hand. He was hospitalized over 24 hours. The index finger was reconstructed, but the middle, ring, and little fingers had to be surgically amputated.